Bruins: Toews, Hawks back to scene of crime

BOSTON — Hockey players are a chatty bunch. In the summer, many get together to work out during the day and share stories at night.

DAN CAGEN

BOSTON — Hockey players are a chatty bunch. In the summer, many get together to work out during the day and share stories at night.

For six years, Milan Lucic would always hear how hard it is to play against his Bruins teammate, Patrice Bergeron. Although he'd seen Bergeron control so many games, he felt fortunate he had never experienced first-hand how the center can take away your oxygen, can steal the puck and streamline in the other direction, can seem to be in three places at once.

In last season's playoffs, Lucic could finally understand what his buddies were talking about. When the Bruins played the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Final, Lucic's line matched up against Chicago captain Jonathan Toews.

"I think everyone talks about (Chicago's) offense and all that type of stuff, but when you have him as responsible as he is, it's tough to generate chances and playing in the (offensive zone) when he's so good defensively," Lucic said. "Talking to a lot of players who have to play against Bergy and his line, it's the same sort of thing."

Bergeron and Toews will meet again Thursday night at TD Garden when the Blackhawks return to Causeway Street for the first time since winning the Cup here nine months ago. It'll again be their two leaders that are at the forefront for teams that very much expect to be back in the Final this spring.

Grouped along with Los Angeles' Anze Kopitar, Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk and Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf, Bergeron and Toews are among the best two-way forwards in the NHL. Bergeron won the Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward in 2012, and Toews nipped him last year in a vote that was closer than a skate blade.

Considering the Cup has been won the last four years by Toews (2010, 2013), Bergeron (2011) and Kopitar (2012), having a physical, two-way center may be the key building block of a championship team.

"I think lots of offense is created by that," Bergeron said. "I think sometimes we're trying to put too much emphasis on cheating and going for the extra play, but sometimes if you put more emphasis and work on your defense, you're not going to spend as much time in (the defensive zone), so it's a positive in that manner."

This season both Bergeron and Toews have been their usual selves and are again the leading contenders for the Selke. Bergeron leads the NHL in faceoff percentage among players with at least 1,000 draws (58.8 percent) and Toews is second (57.0). Among centers, only Kopitar and San Jose's Joe Thornton have a higher Corsi rating (plus/minus for attempted shots).

Bergeron and Toews were Olympic teammates for the second time last month, helping Canada to another gold medal. Bruins coach Claude Julien was an associate team for Canada and ran the team's penalty kill. He learned he could rely on Toews in much the same way he does on Bergeron.

"You can compare him to Bergy if you want to know what he's all about," Julien said. "You've got basically the same type of player."

The Canadians allowed three goals in six games. Some have said it was the best defensive team in hockey history. Bergeron says much of that was due to the work of the forwards, of which he and Toews were the best defensively.

"Our back pressure to me was something that I've never seen before," Bergeron said. "Just the way that guys did the backcheck more than going on the offense was pretty impressive."

Toews' offensive numbers are higher than Bergeron's, with 28 goals and 67 points to Bergeron's 23 goals and 51 points. But the Blackhawks ask more from Toews on the scoresheet. There's a dropoff to No. 2 center Michal Handzus. The Bruins share the No. 1 center tag between Bergeron and David Krejci.

That explains in large part why Bergeron starts 45.8 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone to 63.7 percent for Toews. Perhaps that could push Bergeron to the Selke this season.

"They're two of the best when it comes to that, two-way play and controlling the game," Lucic said. "I know when they talk about this matchup, they talk about the game within the game and that's the cool part of hockey and that's just one of the examples of that."

Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.

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